Care home sales have been rising

|Christie & Co director Richard Lunn reports on the upsurge of care home sales being concluded before the National Care Standards Commission came into operation| Unusually, the number of care home deals concluded through Christie & Co in the first quarter of this year exceeded those in the companyÂ¹s largest sectors of hotels and pubs. We believe there are two reasons for this rise in care home sales. Firstly, purchasers had been waiting to see what would happen to the market once the long-awaited new minimum care standards were introduced. Having reassured themselves that the market will be stronger in the long term with a set of nationally recognised standards, rather than the wide variety of regional variations that previously led to confusion in the sector, buyers are once again keen to acquire care home properties. Secondly, we have seen a rush to conclude deals before the new NCSC came into being. Under the Registered Homes Act 1984, all applications for the transfer of care home registrations were hand